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Satnews Daily
May 19th, 2012

Honeybee Robotics Spacecraft Mechanism + MMA Design... Enhancing Crucial Capabilities (CubeSats)


[SatNews] This Company has delivered a novel CubeSat solar array drive assembly (SADA) to...

...MMA Design LLC, for integration into their High Watts per Kilogram (HaWK) tracked power system. MMA’s HaWK array is a modular dual-wing solar array deployment and tracking power system designed to provide enhanced capability for CubeSats, increasing orbit average power (OAP) by more than 300 hundred percent and enables new high performance applications in Earth imaging, space science and situational awareness.

Measuring just 6.5mm—thinner than the world’s thinnest smartphone—the CubeSat SADA provides +/- 180 degrees of smooth, low power tracking motion along a single axis. The SADA incorporates power transfer, tracking motion and control electronics, and is designed to accommodate orbit average power of 22 watts (11 watts per wing), and peak power of 36 watts (18 watts per wing) with the modular HaWK-2 power system. The SADA is capable of transferring 100 watts peak power with alternate HaWK modular configurations. Existing CubeSat power capabilities are limited to only 5 watts of orbit average power.

Designed to maximize mission payload volume and mass on standard CubeSat platforms, Honeybee’s SADA module is compliant with the 3U CubeSat bus form factor. The module occupies the vacant space between CubeSat and P-POD, eliminating the need for any changes to bus geometry. MMA Design is developing HaWK under a Phase II SBIR sponsored by the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL).